In a way Sigiswald Kuijken’s honest liner-notes (set in
the beautiful Rotis font) are the best thing about this recording.
They start out by putting the phrases “original”
and “authentic” in deserving quotation marks. Then
they continue acknowledging that neither of those things are
in any way truly possible in musical performance, and that the
state of performance and listening is always, necessarily
in flux. That’s not to say that anyone should stop trying
to bring new or fresh-old ideas to this music, and Kuijken does
just that.

Kuijken had already recorded the Brandenburg Concertos twice
before he set out to record them yet again in 2009: First in
1977 on SEON/Sony with Gustav Leonhardt and Frans Brüggen,
then again in 1994 for DHM/MBG with his group, La Petite
Bande. The improvement in period instrument (PI) performance
since the 1970s and even 1990s has been significant and might
merit a new recording alone, but Kuijken implements other changes,
too. For one, he uses a true, valve- and hole-less trumpet in
the Second Concerto and he has the man to do it-Jean-François
Madeuf. For the violoncello part, Kuijken uses a violoncello
da spalla (aka viola pomposa) with which he also recorded the
Cello Suites.

They are the most chamber-music like of Kuijken’s Brandenburgs
yet, with that crisp, uncompromising attack that makes his one-year
cantata cycle on the same label such a thrilling proposition.
The thrill isn’t maintained throughout as swaying, temperate
speeds introduce mellower tones. The natural horns that sound
nowhere as secure as those of Richard
Egarr who, along with Jordi Savall, takes a similar lilt-inflected,
warm, unhurried approach. This as opposed to the admittedly
exciting, unrelenting citius, altius, fortius style of
Alessandrini and Il Giardino Armonico. Le Petite Bande’s
performance is a pleasure and a treat, but Egarr - whose recording
since originally reviewing it in 2009 has only risen in my estimation
- remains the current top-choice for non-aggressively purling
PI Brandenburgs.

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